Phase contrast imaging has gained considerable attention in medical imaging in the past decade in view of the recently discovered applicability to that field of sophisticated X-ray optics, without the need for changing conventional source or detector hardware. Phase contrast imaging applies Talbot-Lau interferometry, and usually features three diffractive or absorptive X-ray optical elements. Interference fringes formed at a scale of micro-metres or tens of micro-metres can be probed, and phase and small-angle scatter effects of an object of interest can be probed. This has enabled new and medically useful information to be extracted from X-ray images.
US patent publication US 2014/0177795 A1 discusses the application of a Talbot-Lau interferometer to an X-ray imaging system. Such an approach can, however, be further improved.